PC Gaming Market Will Hit $25 Billion In 2014, Research Firm Predicts

DFC Intelligence predicts the global PC gaming market will break $25 billion this year, but while MOBAs continue to surge, MMOs are on the decline.

It's been awhile since I've been able to make a "PC gaming is dead" crack, which is good because it means that the idea, pretty silly to begin with, has finally passed from the collective consciousness. Still, it's good to hear once in awhile that PC gaming isn't just alive, it's actually doing rather well for itself, so this news out of research firm DFC Intelligence is both happy and welcome.

The firm told GamesIndustry International that it has revised its internal forecast for the global PC gaming market in 2014 from $22 billion to $25 billion, noting that "core gamers seem to be willing to spend more money than ever." Analyst Jeremy Miller said the company expected the lack of major new releases to have a negative impact, but "the top titles of 2012 continued to do well in 2013 and new titles like Battlefield 4 and Total War: Rome II had solid performances."

The top PC game in 2013 was League of Legends while Dota 2 led the year in terms of growth, reflecting the continuing popularity of the MOBA genre. MMOs, on the other hand, are down, and were actually surpassed in value by the FPS market. Furthermore, while the free-to-play model remains lucrative, the traditional "upfront payments" model is also doing very well, which DFC said may spur the growth of a "hybrid business model working where you can call it F2P but still charge upfront."

DFC also stated that the launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 could actually have a positive impact on the PC market as well, because of an increased number of "crossover" releases of games like Grand Theft Auto V, Titanfall and The Elder Scrolls Online.

"I think the biggest item of note is the synergy now between console and PC," analyst David Cole said. "We actually think the launch of the new console systems will help lift the PC game business because there is large overlap between console and PC gamers and it becomes another platform for developers."